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My appreciation for “Psychoanalytic Peregrinations IV: What Is Phenomenology?” (which appeared in J. Am. Acad. Psychoanal. Dyn. Psychiatr., vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 673-691) for the depth and density of his tour through this philosophical perspective. When I was a medical student and resident in the late 1960s and 1970s, I learned to direct psychodrama from Jorge Valles, M.D. Valles did amazing work with chronic alcoholics. He introduced me to the existentialists and phenomenologists, especially Husserl.
The phenomenological perspective proved particularly helpful in conducting psychodrama therapy. It facilitated the exquisite detailed attention to “setting the scene.” It is this quality of attention that may be crucial to the effectiveness of psychodrama therapy. Valles would never allow other patients in the large group to analyze or criticize the patient at the share-back phase that concluded each psychodrama, but they could share their experiences insofar as they related to what had occured in the psychodrama therapy session. A phenomenological point of view assisted patients in more thoroughly appreciating these experiences.
As I pursued learning psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, I have always thought of phenomenology as an existential corrective to premature interpretation and as a help in not excessively imposing theory onto the listening process. Phenomenology leads to theory and corrections of theory—not to a theory ready to pounce on clinical data.
Thank you again for publishing this stimulating paper.